Fears pension dashboard could increase fraud

Care needs to be taken so the pension dashboard does not lead to an increase in fraud, KPMG has warned.

At the Association of British Insurers' (ABI) Open Pensions: future of savings conference providers were warned to be vigilant against fraud as the industry moves towards the launch of the pensions dashboard.

The idea behind the pension dashboard, which is due to launch in 2019, is to create the technology to allow savers to see all of their retirement pots in one place at the same time, giving them a greater awareness of their assets and how to plan for their retirement.

Alex Anisie, privacy and cyber security director, financial services at KPMG, said providers need to be careful with the launch of the pensions dashboard.

Mr Anisie said: "Customers are handing over their birth certificates and marriage certificates to their providers, so they are ultimately leaving themselves open to fraud.

"The onus is on the pensions scheme provider to verify that, before the customer transfers from their scheme, that they have received the right information and that they aren’t transferring to a fraudulent scheme.

"Providers have to manually check this information and this is very difficult.

"We need to make sure that the industry isn't opened up to wider fraud as we move to an open (pensions) dashboard. Open dashboard will cater to over 300 providers, plus any new providers that come into the space.

"We need to be aware of what we are securing and when.

"The digital ID could help in this case, it does what it has to do and we have seen in other countries where fraud is prevented by using them."

Introduced in 2016, the digital ID identity assurance system was intended to provide a single trusted login across all UK government digital services, verifying the user's identity in 15 minutes.

Oliver Dowden, minister for implementation, said that the private sector would take responsibility for broadening the usage and application of the Gov.UKVerify programme.